Feast for the senses

In addition to its eclectic cuisine, Yunnan offers fresh air and blue skies, spectacular views in the Lijiang mountains and soothing traditional Naxi music. There is plenty to please all five senses.

Most visitors to Yunnan Province, Southwest China, stop in Kunming, the capital city, and connect to Dali, Lijiang or other tourist-friendly areas. While many people use the capital as a transit point, there are a handful of reasons to pause there for a few days and explore the surrounding area.

Yunnan, which borders Sichuan Province and Tibet Autonomous Region, is at the southwestern end of China just above Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. Its geographical location is one of the reasons for the great variety of food.

Kunming is a modern and developed city with pleasant weather around the year. There are a number of sites to visit, including temples, pagodas and museums.

Kunming, like the rest of Yunnan, has plenty of affordable hotel rooms and hostels. For example, clean, comfortable rooms at the Camellia Hotel start at 140 yuan ($19) a night and include a Western/Chinese breakfast buffet, with coffee and made-to-order eggs. There's an adjoining hostel with even better deals.

At the suggestion of a local Kunming friend, a stop at the second floor snack court, near Nanping Road and Huguo Road, proved to be a good idea. There were small, fresh crabs, chicken and tofu on sticks, or noodles in small clay pots. The choices were endless and most of the items would please the most health-conscious eaters. Five wonderful dishes came to 30 yuan ($4).

After dark, many foreigners gravitate toward a number of cafes or bars, including the famous Salvador's Coffee House on Wenlin Jie. Walk down the street and there are plenty of lounge bars where the service is friendly and you can linger for hours. Visit www.gokunming.com for information about this city.

Yunnan's minorities are a big attraction. Finding an authentic community to visit takes some effort, but a taxi ride to Yunnan Nationalities Museum, outside the city, is worth about two hours. For just 10 yuan ($1.3) you can enjoy several halls of displays showcasing colorful costumes, miniature wooden homes, musical instruments and articles from two dozen minority groups in the province.

Walk across the street and you will find the Yunnan Nationalities Village, charging 70 yuan ($9.6). Nearly everyone at this tourist destination is dressed in traditional clothes and there are a variety of replica homes, temples and lakes. One can easily spend four hours walking around and getting a flavor of this ancient culture.

For a more authentic Yunnan experience, Lijiang offers further possibilities. Although it's highly commercialized, one could spend a week in the Old Town among its cobble-stoned streets and still get lost in the web of paths that weave around beautiful homes, doubling up as souvenir shops, temples, affordable hotel rooms and cafes with wooden tables and bars stools.

There are dozens of restaurants, cozy coffee shops with Western food and tiny bars with Naxi men whiling away the evening and keeping warm with a fire in the middle of the floor - all ready to smile and greet their guest.

Most people end up at the Old Market Square, which has a festive atmosphere at night as Naxi boys and girls dance in a large human circle. Thousands of tourists enjoy the live music and decent food in this area.

In the day a good tip is to climb the path just left of the market square and take pictures of the mountains and tiled rooftops. After the fairly strenuous climb, an hour or two inside a coffee shop overlooking the roofs and mountains, with a cup of fresh-brewed Yunnan coffee, is priceless.

(China Daily 01/03/2008 page19)